This one falls into that darker corner of gay cinema. There was real potential buried in here, but the execution feels so flat that at points it plays out more like a filmed stage play than an actual movie. It's a dark psychological drama built around a street hustler confessing to a brutal, confusing murder of his own lover. Black and white flashback sequences do a solid job laying out the details of what happened, but the real focus stays on the dialogue and the writing itself. Right at the start, a young hustler has already killed his male lover Claude. Three days go by before he calls the police to turn himself in for the murder. But instead of just reporting it somewhere ordinary, he actually summons the police and the local press directly into a judge's private chambers. Yves has keys to the place, which tracks given what he does for a living, but having the press waiting right outside makes the whole scene look like some elaborate blackmail scheme against the judge. The ...
Set in 2001, right at the start of the new millennium, this one's a gentle little coming of age story about two guys figuring out who they are. I don't know much about what that era was actually like over there, but going by what the film shows, being gay back then meant dealing with a ton of hostility, and even just being suspected of it was enough to get you targeted. Think about what high school would've been like under those conditions. On top of that, the movie also digs into that thing where gay people end up turning that hatred inward on themselves for reasons that make no sense. It's a small, tender kind of film. The story centers on Gyeong Hwan, a freshman who's just switched schools after moving to a new area. He ends up seated next to Jae Min, the class president, and the two hit it off once they realize they both love the same Japanese music. Because Gyeong Hwan comes across as shy and soft spoken, he becomes a bit of a target for bullies. As their bond ...